Reading Rainbow raised more than $5.4 million by the July 2 cutoff for its Kickstarter campaign. On June 26, Burton announced that comedian Seth MacFarlane would match up to $1 million, which brings the combined total of pledges to more than $6 million.

Reading Rainbow is also among Kickstarter's all-time Top 5 highest earning campaigns, alongside "Veronica Mars," Pebble, Pono and Ouya. Each of those campaigns on June 30 offered rewards to donors who support Reading Rainbow in its final two days.